India successfully launches radar imaging spy satellite RISAT-1

India today successfully launched its first indigenous 'spy satellite' RISAT-1. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying the radar imaging satellite lifted off from Sriharikota spaceport at 5.47 am this April morning.

RISAT-1 has day and night viewing capacity and will not be blinded by cloud cover. It will help in crop monitoring and flood forecasting. It gives India the ability of continuous surveillance. The all-weather surveillance tool is hence sometimes referred as a spy satellite in common parlance.

RISAT-1 carries a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode and can provide provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions.Apart from RISAT-1, India already has another spy satellite RISAT-2 which was launched in 2009.